Thinking of corps dansant as a basis, assuming its particular vision by a choreographer, seems to be the core of the contemporary quest in dance. Based on the construct of the corps dansant – the dancing body, the author points to its aesthetic variations which can be traced in the work of choreographers at the turn of the 20th century. The examples presented oscillate between the pioneers of Modernism and the beginning of the 1990s., mapping out the context for the analysis of the most recent choreographic works. The issue which is also addressed here is that of the viewer’s participation in the reception and creation of the image of the corps dansant.

In her article the author discusses a growing interest in the issues of corporeality in contemporary studies in the humanities and its consequences for the art of dance, based mostly on the body. Referring to the ideas of Michel Foucault, Richard Schusterman and Rosi Braidotti, the author presents different concepts of subjectivity which by rejecting Descartes’ paradigm of the bodiless cogito, offer an open, corporeal subject who, at the same time, is nomadic, remains in the state of constant becoming, movement. The author describes various representations of corporeality which emerge in the art of dance, searching in them for the strategy of splitting of the imposed codes of representation and norms of proper corporeality and proper movement sanctioned by them. In the last part of the text, on the example of the work of Polish dance artists such as Izabela Chlewin´ska and Bretoncaffe Theatre the author analyses strategies used which refer to the re-inscription of the femininity as well as of the female experience of corporeality.

In contemporary choreography more and more often the artists give up the staging of well know literature or the virtuoso shows of the dancers, instead they concentrate on the corporeality of the dancers themselves. Such corporeality nearly assumes the proportions of the protagonist of the show. This turn towards the body of the performer can be seen among others in Sasha Waltz’s & Guests’ Ko¨rper. Since the 1970s. somatic themes have become increasingly popular in the stage practice of many choreographers and actually dominated the modern dance. On the example of Ko¨rper by Sasha Waltz & Guests as well as two shows by Pina Bausch: Walzer and Year 1980 the author analyses the social role of the body in the dance shows and discusses the character of the dictate of the body over choreography.

This article presents dance as an artistic genre which reflects various ways of understanding body and bodiliness recurring in the philosophical discourse. It analyses 20th century dance activities in order to show that the changes in the framing of the dance movement prove the recognition of the „subjective” (as Maurice Merleau-Ponty would have it) nature of a dancer’s body. In the light of various dance practices, the contact improvisation has been especially highlighted as a proof of the active participation of the body in the process of perception. At the same time, dance is being treated here as a paradigmatic example of somatic – as guided by the bodily experience – human way of being in contemporary times.

As a branch of aesthetics, somaaesthetic is framed by Richard Schusterman in a broader theoretical context. The author suggests that it be included into philosophy. It means practising philosophy not only as a discursive genre, a form of writing but as a discipline of „embodied life.” As a quest for truth and wisdom philosophy should be realised not only through texts but also through the somatic exploration and experiment. Owing to a specific sensitivity towards the body and its non-verbal messages, owing to practising of the bodily disciplines which heighten somatic consciousness and transform the way of being and functioning, an individual discovers and broadens his/her self-knowledge by transforming his/her own self.

Fascination with the ancient Greece at the beginning of the 20th century has influenced the development of the modern dance in a very particular way since it restored the consciousness of the body. Three great personalities: Isadora Duncan, Emil Jaques-Dalcroze and Vaslav Nijinsky used the inspiration with Antiquity in a very different way, but what they had in common was the need to reform the dance. By concentrating on various aspects of corporeality – psycho-physical harmony, natural rhythm, and sensuality – they presented new possibilities of the dance in the sphere of spiritual and aesthetic experience, highlighting the plasticity, spatiality as well as musicality of this art.

Georges Didi-Huberman’s idea concerning the gradual decline of the Nymph (the figure borrowed from Aby Warburg’s discourse), which can be traced in the course of art throughout the centuries until the late modern artistic works, serves the author as a point of departure for her considerations of the transformations of dance which have taken place from the moment it became an independent art form at the beginning of the 20th century, and begun the gradual working out of its own language. The author poses a question concerning the relationship between the image, the body and the movement in dance with the use of categories introduced by Aby Warburg in his research on the dynamic energetic images. The changes in the treatment and combining image, body and movement in the dance choreography marked by the names of such artists as Los´e Fuller, Merce Cunningham or Meg Stuart, allow to sketch the fate of the Nymph in the 20th century as a timeless pathos fomula present also in contemporary dance.

Antonin Artaud’s theatre of cruelty and Tatsumi Hijikata’s dance Ankoku buto¯ are both expressions of the revolt against the Western assumptions of stage art which degrade a human being and kill the lively texture of the performance. Artaud’s protest aimed at the formula of the bourgeois theatre which absorbed life in the name of the culture. Hijikata revolted against restraining of the dancer’s body and imposing through a set of rigourous codes, a form which suited the preferences of a perfectly socialised society. Hijikata seems to be the direct inheritor of the way of thinking about the meaning of the stage practice which Artaud presented in the collection of articles published in his The Theatre and Its Double almost half a century earlier.

In the article the author addresses the issue of combining the notion of performativity, as understood by Erika Fischer-Lichte, with recent trends in the multimedia theatre. According to the German scholar, performativity is associated with the simultaneous bodily presence of the actors and the audience, with establishing of relationships and meanings adding up to a collective artistic statement. A similar idea of the interaction can be recognised in the theoretical statements of Mark Coniglio – the founder of Troika Ranch group. In their shows, the team often uses new technologies which mediate the presence of the actor on the stage, despite of which Coniglio keeps stressing the importance of the authentic and direct contact with the audience.

The article addresses the issue of the embodied experience of female dancers as well as their emancipatory motor activity potential in the everyday life. The research results (outcome of free and narrative interviews with the dancers) are juxtaposed with the arguments concerning the female embodiment as presented by the phenomenologist, Iris MarionYoung. The main argument of the article consists in the idea that the female dancers share the following distinguishing features: high consciousness of their embodiments, motor activity as well as the space surrounding them. More often than women who do not dance, do they use the full potential of their bodies thus become able to oppose or even reject the social roles imposed on them by the patriarchal culture.

The Ghost Dance as a religious movement which developed at the turn of the 19th century plays a very particular role in the discussion about the formation of racial and ethnic identity of native Americans. The article presents this phenomenon in the context of the transformation of cinematic images of the natives. The Ghost Dance seems to fulfil multiple functions in numerous works beginning with the films shot in 1894 in Thomas Edison’s studio, up until the most recent works, representative of the independent cinema of the Native Northern Americans. It can both preserve the racial stereotypes, and provide a basis for an ethnic identification. The complex meaning of this motif is accounted for in the author’s analysis of films and TV series such as The Ghost Dance, Thunderheart, Imprint, Into the West, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, as well as, We Shall Remain.